Waldsee BioHaus Wins Minnesota Environmental Initiative Award

Innovation: The BioHaus combines a learning area and living quarters under a "green roof" that features solar panels, soil and plants.

Concordia Language Villages’ Waldsee BioHaus, the first certified Passive House in North America, has won the 2007 Minnesota Environmental Initiative Award for air quality and climate protection. These are the premiere environmental awards in the state and commend the ability to honor both environmental and business priorities.

The award recognizes the Waldsee BioHaus' impressive 24-hour air/heat exchange system featuring an 85 percent efficient heat recovery unit. The system provides the interior with superior air quality and the building’s air-tight construction and super-insulation envelope reduces total energy consumption, resulting in a dramatic reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. The BioHaus, located at the German Language Village near Bemidji, Minn., serves as a residence and an environmental living center for language and cultural immersion programs for young people from all 50 states.

Learning: Waldsee students help plant the "green roof."

Completed in 2006 with sponsorship from the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, Europe’s largest environmental foundation, and in partnership with a number of German and U.S. companies and foundations, Concordia Language Villages built the Waldsee BioHaus with a dual purpose: to reflect present-day architecture trends in Germany and to immerse young Americans in cross-cultural immersion adventures in sustainable living. The BioHaus adheres to the world’s most stringent energy consumption standard for buildings, Germany’s Passivhaus Standard; it is the most air-tight building in the U.S.

Earlier this month, the BioHaus was named a candidate for another honor, the World Clean Energy Award. Winners will be announced June 15.

Concordia Language Villages is a program of Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn. Since 1961, the Language Villages has prepared young people for responsible citizenship in our global community through its 15 language immersion programs.

May 24, 2007

Links

Waldsee BioHaus

Concordia Language Villages

Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt

German Language Camp Gets Nation's First Passive Energy House (June 2006)

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